With town and parish councils keen to play a more important role, Ceri Harrison explains how Cheshire East Council has developed its own approach to localism to help improve efficiency and deliver services.

Long before the Localism Bill began its passage through Parliament, the newly-formed Cheshire East Council started out life with ambitious plans to transform and redefine front-line services.

The council formally came into existence on April1, 2009 formed from the merger of the three district councils- Congleton Borough Council, Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council, Macclesfield Borough Council - with Cheshire County Council.

From the outset, making services more local and more efficient was a major driver for the reorganisation of local government in Cheshire, and we’re proud to say that it is working.

Case study 1: The devolution of grass cutting and ground maintenance to Congleton Town Council. Cheshire East Council and Congleton Borough Council have teamed up together under this initiative to work out a number of local but statutory services and how this can be better delivered through the town council. Issues such as the transfer of staff and equipment are being considered but the ultimate aim is for the town council to take over the running of these services on behalf of the borough and to a number of neighbouring parishes.

So just how are we embracing ‘Localism’? Cheshire East Council began with a good hard look at the way it delivered services in bid to improve provision but also to reduce costs and we concluded that while ‘localism’ was an important ingredient, there still needed to be tiers of governance.

In terms of strategy, this would come from sub-regional, regional and council level. There were questions about the provision or commissioning of services which needed to be provided at the most economic level; and then the questions of delivery, which needed to be as local as possible.

What we had to keep in mind was that all of the above had to achieve positive outcomes for individuals and their communities. We realised that generally speaking, the bigger the service the less local it could be, so for very small levels of services provision we had to go ultra-local.

Parish and town councils would become key players and with 108 town and parish councils in Cheshire East there were many who had the ambition to play a bigger part in delivering really effective and very local services. It was also clear that some services might be at risk being unaffordable or unsustainable at borough level, and so we set about devolving power and responsibilities with the following objectives: -

• to hand over local services to those that could focus and deliver them more effectively
• to de-clutter service provision at a strategic level and focus on core business and free ourselves from non-statutory services which we could no longer afford or maintain
• to harmonise financial arrangements and ensure that a fair system of local taxation was in place and reduce the burden on the borough council tax
• ·o build on social capital and encourage local people to take ownership for services within their communities
• to raise the bar for all town and parish councils to provide better opportunities and choices that would enable them to take on a crucial role in local service delivery and community engagement.

Case study 2: The devolution of day care services to Audlem Social Enterprise supported by Audlem Parish Council Audlem Parish Council is a relatively small organisation but which has for a number of years embraced the notion of being proactively involved in service delivery and helping the community to help itself. As part of the Cheshire East Council initiative they have taken over the public conveniences and remodelled them so that they run for far less cost and to a better standard for locals and tourists. They are also involved in an innovative scheme which has set up a social enterprise with other local partners in order to run day services for the local elderly population. They are actively seeking further opportunities to build on this approach and Cheshire East Council is keen to support and roll-out the model across the Borough.

The next challenge was to determine just how it could be done - town and parish councils might be regarded as a separate sector (much like the third sector) but they are also each fiercely independent with different political make-ups and organisation.

It is a difficult task - but one which the authority is working its way through systematically so that we are now at the stage of agreeing detailed schedules of assets and functions which local town and parish councils will undertake from April 2012, subject to final sign off procedures.

How did we do it? We had to examine the area’s town and parish councils to make sure that any decision to transfer a number of assets, services and functions would fall within their existing powers. Here, we felt, would exist a truly local layer of delivery.

We needed a commitment to operate at the most local level appropriate for each service and to ensure any outcomes were cheaper than the previous service models. We also needed clarity of process so we could agree and implement a schedule of transfers in a systematic and consistent manner.

Importantly, we also needed a clear message about what we were seeking to achieve – about future roles and responsibilities and to make sure that the right skills and experience were available to support local representatives and working groups.

And finally - the one essential factor – we needed to build in resilience and since town and parish councils have been steadily losing functions since the Public Health Act of 1848, so we had to recognise that they could not be expected to achieve everything overnight.

So what has been the final outcome? One key message that we have maintained throughout this project is that it is a process and not an event. It is the first phase of fundamentally changing roles and responsibilities and building the infrastructure to become part of the delivery arm of a truly local government.

Case study 3: Transfer of assets to major town and parish town councils There are nine larger town and parish councils within Cheshire East who have elected to take on a number of assets and functions in their localities. Alsager , Bollington, Congleton, Disley, Knutsford, Poynton, Middlewich, Nantwich, and Sandbach are all in the process of agreeing to directly own and manage a number of key local assets such as markets, community halls, toilets, play areas and allotments which they feel they can deliver more cheaply and effectively. Ceri Harrison is head of corporate improvement at Cheshire East Council

We started with a small but significant list of services and functions including civic and community halls, public toilets, markets, allotments, land strips, street furniture, play areas, grass cutting, flower beds etc.

However this is really just the start of a more radical review of the profile and design of front-line services and how they are delivered. Other community groups and social enterprises will also start to come on board and other more mainstream preventive and information-based services should be next on the list.

Cheshire East’s experience is that once parish and town councils and other local organisations gain confidence and have the right levels of support, they will become effective and innovative in delivering relevant local services, harnessing better funding streams and engaging voluntary effort.

In turn, that will leave the council free to focus on the remainder of its £700m business and determine how best to prioritise and deliver its core objectives within its ever more challenging funding environment.

And all the while it can achieve this, while integrating approaches to key issues such as the ageing population, the reduction of crime and disorder and the provision of an improved local environment so that they can form part of an holistic model of service delivery working with and for the local population.